Glamour Bites

Ian and I pulled up into the parking lot where my office was and I felt the tears come to my eyes. Where our quaint little office building had once been there was now nothing but a blazing fire. A crowd gathered watching the building burn as someone was pulled into an ambulance.



I was out of the car before it had even stopped and running full speed toward the ambulance. I slid to a stop beside the gurney and felt the blood red tears sting my eyes.



“Mike! Oh my gods! What happened?”



Mike looked up at me from the gurney, one eye completely swollen shut. There was blood dripping from his mouth and soaking through the blanket on his legs. He grabbed my hand and pulled me toward him.



“Lexi, find Karma. She was inside with me when the place blew.”



“What happened, Mike? Who did this to you?”



His eyes fluttered and he fainted, dropping my hand away. I nodded to the paramedics and looked around the crowd for Karma. I sniffed the air, but could only smell smoke.



Ian came up behind me and I jumped, shrugging his hands off my shoulders. I needed to think and his touch was distracting. “Not here, Ian. I need to keep my mind on the job. Help me find Karma.” Ian gave me a confused look and I sighed. “She’s a little over four foot tall and green.”



He raised his eyebrow but nodded, heading off into the opposite direction. I went up to the firefighters still working on the fire and listened to their radios. It didn’t take me long to find out that there were people trapped inside, one of them a green female.



I went back to Ian’s car and opened the door, throwing my black leather trench coat and weapons into the passenger’s seat before walking back to the edge of the fire where the firemen were still fighting the blaze.



I had a moment to hear one of them yell at me to get back before I was running into the blaze, heading straight for where Karma’s office used to be. I had stopped my breathing and heartbeat before entering the building, so I had no fear of smoke inhalation, but I had no idea how to find Karma in this blaze.



I dodged a piece of falling wall and ran smack into a firefighter. He grabbed my arm and tried to pull me toward the exit, but I yanked out of his arm. “This is my office. My friend is still in here. I have to find her!”



“You can’t! I’ve been through the whole building! There’s no one left!”



“Yes, there is!” I ran down the hall and found Karma’s office door, but it was blocked by a piece of wall that looked hot to the touch. I knew that I wouldn’t able to lift it without burning myself badly, so I had to think of something else.



I raised my hand just as the firefighter I had dodged came up behind me, still wearing his full gear. “Miss! You need to get out of here!”



“Not without Karma!” I raised my hand and called the winds and the waters to me, feeling my eyes go black with the witch power within me. The firefighter remained standing beside me, though he let me do what I needed to do.



I pulled the power of the sun spirit shining down on the burning building into myself and used his power to douse the wall blocking the door with water and a blast of wind. There was a sizzle as the door was cooled down and the fire around it was put out.



I moved fast and pulled the wall away from the door, throwing my weight and strength into the door, causing it to splinter. I fell into the room and gasped at the sight of the fire covering every wall, and Karma lying underneath her desk, unconscious.



The firefighter moved to get her and I shook my head, feeling a power around her that said it was dangerous for a human. I took two strides to her and ducked as her defense mechanism kicked in and threw a burning piece of wood at me.



I blocked it with my own power and scooped her small four foot five inch frame into my arms, carrying her out the door after the firefighter. I had just barely made it through the door when the wall behind me collapsed, hitting me in my left arm, leaving a very bad burn.



I ignored the pain and continued to follow the firefighter out of the house. A beam fell and blocked my view of him and I frowned, knowing that he was the only one who had known how to get out safely. Standing in the midst of the fire, I didn’t know what I was going to do, but my power did.



Without preamble, my eyes grew black and the fire around me started to extinguish itself. I could feel the wind blowing my hair away from my face as I walked, debris moving out of my way quickly. I heard the firefighters shouting that the water wasn’t working, but that something was.



I came out into the open and the building behind me collapse, no signs of any lingering flames or embers. All eyes were on me, my hair flying out behind me, my eyes a never ending black, and Karma held tight in my arms.



I walked toward the paramedics with Karma and everyone in my path scattered to clear a path. The paramedics, though fearful of me, were more concerned with Karma’s health and had me place her on a gurney, checking all vital signs. One of them noticed the severe burn on my arm and pulled me into the new ambulance that had pulled up.



My powers finally began to calm down enough to let the paramedic touch me, but I was weak and needed blood. I could smell the blood packets in the back of the ambulance and turned to the guy who was putting burn ointment on my arm. “This is going to sound really weird, but I don’t care right now. Give me one of those units of blood.”



He looked at me like I was crazy and opened his mouth, more than likely to tell me no, when Ian walked up. “Give her the blood packet, Jesse.”



“Do you know her, Ian?”



“Yeah, Jesse. She’s my girlfriend. Now give her the blood packet.” Ian took my right hand and kissed me gently on it.



The paramedic, Jesse as Ian seemed to know, shrugged and grabbed one of the packets, handing it to me without further question. I took it gently in my hands and glanced at Ian, who merely nodded, knowing exactly what I was about to do.



I had a moment to remember that I was surrounded by worried co-workers before my fangs elongated and sank into the plastic of the packet. The blood squirted into my mouth and my eyes went a deep emerald green as the bloodlust washed through me.



I deepened my hold on the packet and started to suck down the blood in it, letting it reach deeper and deeper into my being. I opened my eyes and saw the faeries and witches that I worked with staring at me with understanding eyes. Somehow, they had known, but they had wanted either proof or me to tell them. Now they had both.



I drank the last of the blood and handed the packet to Jesse, who was staring at me in awe. I went to wipe the blood from my chin when I felt Ian’s tongue along my skin. His lips met mine and I kissed him, letting him taste the blood I had drank.



I pulled back and saw the wolf in his eyes, knowing that we’d be sharing blood a lot from now on, but it was a little weird knowing that. I looked beyond him and saw some of my better friends standing off to the side, smiling in approval, but I wasn’t here to get their approval of Ian. I was here to find out what the hell had happened to the office.



I climbed out of the ambulance and shrugged Jesse off. “I have something to do before I can go to the hospital. I’ll have Ian take me when I find out who set the building on fire.”



I looked at the building and frowned. We were in a small strip of shops and offices, yet our building was the only on that had burned. That yelled magic interference right there, now I just had to figure out the who, how, and why of it all. Though I had no idea where to start.